2012 Run Rabbit Run 100 (Hare Race) Results

The inaugural Run Rabbit Run 100 was a wild ride, indeed. The $40,000 purse guaranteed aggressive running early on while growing pains added some drama to the race. The weather was gorgeous on its face, but the weather was hot for the first 20+ miles (80+F in town) and dropped below freezing quickly after sundown leaving runners shaking wherever they could find shelter. We chat about both races below.

2012 Run Rabbit Run 100 Men’s Race

As one might expect Dave James took out the early miles, building a lead he extended before mid-race. However, the cold crippled him and James had to take two very longs stops in aid stations to stop shivering. Jason Schlarb was up with or near James through the first half, but took a wrong turn that resulted in a 5 mile, 1,500′ detour. He caught a ride back to the previous aid station and then another lift back to where he went off course. He made it to the next aid station, where he dropped. Neither Timothy Olson (pre-race interview) nor Mike Wolfe looked strong nor fluid in the first half. Bouts of vomiting and their resulting effects caused Wolfe to drop around mid-race. Both Tarahumara were within striking distance for the first quarter of the race, but a knee injury forced Arnulfo Quimare from the race and various factors caused Miguel Lara to withdraw from the race, both before nightfall.

Karl Meltzer(pre-race and post-race interviews) hung back in the early going before running a clinic on the younger runners ahead of him. He negative split the course en route to a $11,000 (overall and masters wins) victory. Along the way, he earned a Montrail Ultra Cup entry into next year’s Western States 100… and you’d better believe he’s gonna use it. Dylan Bowman (pre-race and post-race interviews) spent the entire race in the top six, primarily in third or forth in the first half. Going into the back half, attrition and strong running put him in the lead for 20 miles until Meltzer walked him down. Those behind Bowman wouldn’t challenge him after that. Meanwhile, Timothy Olson felt the worst he ever has in a race but never let it show on course. Once the mid-race carnage took place, Olson jumped to third, which he held to the finish. Winning the Mike Foote award on the day is Duncan Callahan who relentlessly moved up in the field from the mid-teens at mile 20 to fourth man at the finish. His only step back place-wise in the second half was from fourth to fifth overall when Lizzy Hawker passed him during a nearly two-hour detour he took.

2012 Run Rabbit Run 100 Women’s Race

Lizzy Hawker (post-race interview) led the women’s race from wire-to-wire without a challenge… well, except for the course itself. In particular, she took a very hard fall early in the race, injuring her knee badly. She looked as if the pain would cause her to drop before mid-race. Eventually, that pain led to vomiting two-thirds of the way through the race, but nothing could stop her. On the other hand, Rhonda Claridge and Leila Degravebattled one another from start to finish. While the finish line saw Claridge cross 36 minutes ahead of Degrave, the margin was a handful of minutes through much of the race.

Salynda Fleury was the fourth and final women’s finisher, despite the cash prizes going five deep. There was lots of carnage in the men’s race, but it was even more noticeable among the women given their much smaller field size. Nikki Kimball was stopped by a pre-existing hamstring injury. Ashley Arnold was fatigued from the Jungfrau Marathon the weekend prior and her midweek travel back from Europe. Jenny Pierce battled asthma brought on by a summer’s worth of wildfire smoke in Montana. Others like Aliza Lapierre and Melanie Fryar succumbed to various factors.

Looking back at Karl's pre-race interview it's almost like he sandbagged the whole thing. He spoke of winning the Master's title and the money, but didn't mention winning the whole race. You have to love that! Way to go Karl and Lizzy! Congratulations!

Karl sat back and watched us all surge and just waited for the dark cold night to make his move, tons of respect for my Hoka One One Teammate and the clinic he put us all through last night! Way to go Karl!

I'm a bit concerned that in light of the recent Lance debacle and in keeping with Geoff's recent post, Jameson coffee may now show up on the USADA list of banned substances. Just what exactly is in that 100-mile blend? Well, whatever it is, it's working for Karl and I'm gonna buy me a few pounds!

Great job, Karl and Lizzy, and (as always) great coverage Bryon and iRF.

Any feedback from the hares on the course? I ran the tortoise race (but DNF'd at 75 miles) and know the course was plagued with some questionable course markings. Just wondering what other people were saying (if anything) about bushwacking up ski runs, crossing through town at stoplights, long dirt roads, rocky single track, etc. For a first year 100-miler, it still seemed like they did a pretty good job.

Congrats to Karl, Lizzy, and also to my friend and RaceReady athlete Marty Wacker on a strong finish and best Masters race besides the amazing clinic Karl put on for everyone else! It was so cool to be there for this first RRR 100, and see all the outstanding performances. I did hear "better course marking please" from a lot of people but can't comment personally since I only crewed.

And, had many cups of that coffee this morning-it's good stuff. As is all this coverage on our niche sport. Thanks, Bryon!

Thanks to BP and the IRUNFAR crew for their outstanding coverage! It seems like they were there at every aid station asking the probing questions and providing the amazing live coverage we have all come to love!

What my Hoka One One Grand Puba Teammate did last night was simply amazing! Way to go King Karl! So proud of you!

Lizzy was awesome out there too! It was incredible to have her come participate in RRR! DBow ran a very smart consistent race and is the real deal folks! Timmy was awesome out there, despite his off day, he was so positive! Duncan was Mr. Consistent! I am glad Rhonda was out there to share in the long morning we both had to go through together. She was a true warriot out there. INOV8 should be proud it has an athlete like Leila!

As for my run, well can't really call it that, race, I want to thank BP and all the volunteers who got me through the cold long night which required me to spend a lot of time in the aid stations shivering abd regaining use of my numb fingers. I could not have finished without all of your help, thank you! Hardrock Lottery, here I come! Hardest $1K I have ever earned.

To my GENr8 Virtargo Teammate Jason S…. you are going to nail this 100 mile distance really soon, keep at it! To Nick P…… awesome job today in the 50 and getting your states bib! To Wolfe….. keep at it man, we all go through dry spells but you are still the best!

There were so many of us that had wrong turn, rough, bad, off days out there at RRR, only 15 finishes from the 1pm start? :( To all of you: Awesome that you had the courage to start and help change our sport in a positive direction supporting a race with real significant prize money! Thank you Fred for stepping up to raise the funds! RRR 2013 and beyond is going to be a event not to be missed!

That is absolutely amazing that Karl was able to do that in just a little over 19 hours. He is a true inspiration. It was my first 100, and it was frickin' hard, and I was happy to be able to sprint across the line after about 32.5 hours. Fun race despite the pain. Great, great, great volunteers and excellent support from fellow runners. Thanks Bryon and thanks to everybody else who participated.

I spoke with him briefly (via a translator) – who also mentioned something about a fear of bears. Apparently, a bear made off with some stuff at an aid station. The fear may be founded in superstitions that the Tarahumara tribe believes in. Someone else commented about the story about how the Tarahumarans thought of Ann Trason as a 'witch' when they participated in the Leadville 100 a number of years ago. (Detailed in Born to Run). This is not a full accounting of Arnulfo's race – but what I was able to piece together.

You are just looking at the leading edge, not the full distribution of times. No question that there are some awesome women out there, and that the best women finish ahead of a lot of men, but so what. Stick to apples vs apples.

Proud to see four First Endurance fueled athletes start the race and they happen to come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Great to see Karl still showing those young runners how to handle the 100 mile distance like a Pro.

Yes Arnulfo had a bad knee early on. He said it hurt and it looked swolen 29 miles in. I don't know exactly what caused it but I think he must've taken a bad step. As far as the bears, yeah, he said he was scared of bears. I don't think it was so much a superstition thing as it was the fact that bears had torn apart drop bags the night before and he didn't want to run alone at night in a strange land with strange, scary animals. Plus he's just no longer the young man who beat Scott Jurek.